Coming Home
by cHixOr Neko
Summary: Pure Fluff. Duo's dog dies and Heero tries to understand why he is so upset and why he can't seem to help.


A.N. I changed my user name back because I'm pretty sure no one knows I used to be cHixOr Neko. So I changed it back. In addition, I got the idea for this story because my hamster died last night and I was incredibly distraught over it. This for some reason gave me a little bit more comfort.

**Coming Home.**

**By: cHixOr Neko**

"You knew this would happen when you bought him, you know." I said, wiping the sweat that was accumulating on my brow with the back of my hand.

It was a brutally hot summer day and I was, due to my inability to say no to Duo, outside during the hottest day of the year trying to dig a 5 by 6 foot cube in the hard rocky soil. I silently cursed to myself as I picked my water bottle off the ground and squirted the now hot water over my face.

It was only after I moved to Earth when I realized how much I actually hated it. Having traveled all over as a child assassinating people, I never really got used to any one climate. But now, after all the fighting was over with, I didn't really have any clue where to go. So I did the only thing I could think of and followed Duo, who in turn followed the other pilots to Earth.

Duo, Trowa, Wufei, and I worked at the Preventers. I guess Relena and Une decided it was better to have us working for them in a place where they could keep an eye on us, so they waved the 21 year old minimum age for field agents.

Quatre was working hard trying to run Winner Enterprises, and while it was something he didn't expect to be so difficult at first, after a year of being President he fell in love with making all the decisions. So much in fact, that he made the decision that Trowa was to come live with him. Ever since they've been pretty open with their relationship.

Wufei was living in a house down the street from mine. We lived in what Duo calls "suburbia," and claimed that he would never set foot in it as long as he lived when he signed the lease for his downtown apartment. I liked my house and neighborhood. While there were too many kids running around for my liking, at about 7 o clock they all fell down from exhaustion and their mothers would carry them back into the house. That was my favorite time of the day. I had a little stone patio in my back yard with about a 5 foot wooden fence surrounding my property. When they kids dropped I could go out and sit on my patio as much as I wanted and just think.

However, if there's one thing I've learned from living in suburbia, it is to never get an apartment. Duo was constantly complaining about all the things his landlord would never do, like painting a room solid black, and putting down hardwood floors. But there was one thing Duo had managed to sneak past his land lord. A dog.

For some reason, one day after work he asked if it would be alright if he came over. This was a strange thing to hear from Duo. After all, usually when he wanted to come over I'd just come home and find him either asleep on my couch or raiding my fridge. Anyway, I came home from work with a 6 pack of beer, getting ready to hear some story about a girl he had dated or a problem at work. What I found was something very different.

I walked in through my front door, putting my jacket across my breakfast bar and noticed that the back door was open. Looking out through the closed screen door, I saw Duo, laying on the grass with a light brown lab laying with it's head resting on his stomach.

"Duo?" The dog raised it's head from Duo's stomach and got up to trot over to me. "You got a dog?" I asked as I knelt down to scratch the dog behind it's ear.

"Yeah I went down to the pound yesterday." He replied as he sat up.

"What for?" It didn't seem like something Duo would do. The most I could think of was a new way to stick it to his landlord.

"I dunno," he shrugged and stood up, wiping his backside to get any grass that was sticking to him to fall off. "Just been kind of lonely I guess. He's such a nice dog though, his name's Chester."

I nodded and looked down on the dog, now licking my hand. "He looks like a Chester."

That started a tradition. Every friday after work Duo would bring Chester over. We'd order pizza and rented a movie for the week. When the movie was over and Duo and I were done talking, the both of them would sleep in my spare bedroom. The next day usually involved playing fetch with the dog in the backyard or some other activity outside.

It all ended this thursday though. I got a call from Duo on the way to work, he asked me to come over in a choked up voice. I made a U-turn automatically and headed downtown.

When I got there Duo was sitting at his kitchen table with his face in his hands. "Duo?"

When he looked up I could see that his eyes were full of tears and his face red and puffy. "What's wrong?"

He wiped his tears away with the balls of his hand and crossed them across the table. "Chester died last night." He said. His voice was broken and cracking.

I had no idea to do. In my past experiences when an animal died you just got over it, and most certainly didn't cry over it. But for some reason Duo was incredibly broken up over Chester's death. He couldn't even watch as I put him a large garbage bag, pillow and all, and put him in the back seat of my car.

That's what led us to where we were now. I had called Duo and I both in sick from work and we started digging a hole for Chester in my backyard. The temperature wasn't too bad in the morning, probably ranging from about 70-80. But now it was in the dead afternoon and the temperature was about 103 degrees and we were trying to dig in what seemed like solid rock.

"I'm really sorry about this, Heero. I just couldn't do this by myself." I looked down at him, still shoveling away in our now 3 foot deep hole. I couldn't understand why Duo was so upset. He had started acting normal again somewhere in the 4th hour of digging, but after he said this, his face caked with dirt and sweat, I could still see the tears cleaning the dirt away in long streams.

I knelt down next to the hole and grabbed the shovel from him. "You don't need to feel sorry. He was an old dog. You knew that when you got him. Next time you'll just have to get a puppy." All the sudden he looked like a puppy, a kicked one.

"Duo, what?" I asked. His head was hung and I could see his shoulders visibly starting to shake. "Duo?"

"I just..." He looked up and confirmed my theory that she was crying. "Forget it, you wouldn't understand."

I turned my head away from him. He used that excuse with me a lot, and while it hadn't bothered me at first, for some reason that excuse turned sour in my mind.

"If I wouldn't understand, then doesn't that make it easier to talk to me about? Because I don't understand?" He looked over at me with a shocked look on his face. It was the only time I ever challenged his excuse.

"Well, when I younger," he started as he sat down on the grass with his feet resting in the hole, "in the orphanage, people who came to adopt us always picked the youngest. I was there for years and years because everyone wanted the younger kids. I couldn't do that to a dog. You know, in the pounds here, if they can't find a home for the older dogs in 3 weeks they put them to sleep to make room for the new ones. It just hit a little too close to home." He was right. I didn't understand.

"So, you thought you were like a dog?" He let out a chuckle at my confusion and my question and shook his head.

"I love you, man." He said as he pushed himself up and headed into the house.

I sat down on the grass looking down into the hole we'd been digging. I started picking at the grass and throwing the blades into the pit. There was still so much I didn't understand about Duo, and for some reason at that moment all I wanted to do was learn everything about him.

I reached behind me and grabbed his abandoned shovel and began to dig. He came out a few minutes later with two beers and handed one to be before grabbing the other shovel.

It took about another hour to dig the grave. After the sun had begun to go down we were able to dig a lot more productively. We went into the garage and carried the wooden box we put Chester in to the back yard. As we lowered it into the ground I could hear the choked up sounds Duo had made this morning.

"He was a good dog, wasn't he?" I awkwardly put my hand across Duo's shoulders and tentatively pulled his towards me. Duo turned into my and wrapped his arms around my neck as he started to cry openly.

"He was the best dog, Duo."

We stood there for a few minutes before putting the dirt back into the hole. When the grave was filled and the dirt was patted down, we stood for a few minutes looking down on it, neither of us sure what to say.

"I think I'm going to go home now, Heero." He said quietly and I turned towards him. His face was still red and puffy. It was obvious he was trying to hold back tears.

"You could just stay the night." He shrugged his shoulders and began to rub his left arm.

"I just feel like I should be alone right now. I'm sorry, Heero. Thanks for everything you did for me today." His voice cracked near the end and he turned away from me. I could see the tears starting to run down his face, but before I could say anything he was walking briskly to his car and drove off.

I pulled up a lawn chair and sat down with a fresh beer. Staring down at the grave, I tried to think of anything I could do to console Duo. I could get him another dog, but I would hate to have it die and have to see that look on Duo's face again. I sat there for an hour before something finally came to me. I wasn't quite sure if it would even work but I'd try anything to ensure that look never appearing on Duo's face again.

- - - - - - -Duo POV

After Chester died I moped around for about two weeks. I had finally found someone just like me and he died. I mean, I know he was a dog but that dog was the closest I've ever come to feeling like I made a real difference. Maybe I should have gone and adopted a kid. It probably would have provided me with the same feelings and it also probably wouldn't have died as quick.

I was sitting in the front seat of my car with my head pressed the steering wheel. I skipped going to Heero's the week after Chester died, too embarrassed to talk to him. I even started avoiding him at work; doing things like going to get coffee as soon as he'd come back from a meeting, or having a lot of copies to make. Things along that line. It had worked last week, but today at work he cornered me and asked if I was coming over. I couldn't say no.

Heero's had been looking very nervous lately and I knew it was my fault. But he just didn't understand. I don't cry for anyone and I cried at least three times around him in the same day. I felt like a stupid wimp.

I sighed and began to sit up straight in my seat. I knew I needed to stop feeling sorry for myself, but I just couldn't help it. And while I really, really didn't want to face Heero quite yet, I grabbed the six pack resting on the passenger side seat (thank you Preventer's agent ID) and began the walk up to Heero's house.

"Heero?" I called as I opened the front door, it had been a long time since I used his door bell.

"I'm in here." I heard him call. I furrowed my brow and headed towards the sound of his voice. Usually he was waiting for me outside. But I guess that was only when Chester was with us.

"What are you doing in..." I felt my eyes bug out of my skull. Heero was standing in his spare bedroom in his tight blue jeans and a white wife beater stained with black paint. "What are you doing?"

He wiped his nose with his arm and set down the black paint brush he was holding. "You don't have to stay here if you don't want. And you don't have to keep it this color when you grow out of it."

I felt those damned tears coming back and I stood there gaping like a fish. I just couldn't find the words to stay. I couldn't comprehend exactly what was going on.

He started to look really nervous and started scratching the back of his head. We stood there in silence for about a century before he came over and stood in front of me.

"No one wanted me either."

I flung my arms around him and squeezed his lungs so hard I could hear the air being pushed out from his lungs.

"You're going to be the best dog I ever had."

End.

A.N. Well there it is folks. I liked writing this fic a lot, it's probably my favorite one just because it's so unlike my normal style. Anyway, all of you should know that I thrive on reviews. You wanna keep my writing leave me some suggestions, I usually incorporate people's ideas when they leave them.


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